The country may still be at the mercy of Donald Trump, but the NFL is hoping it is safe for now.

The league’s belief that the nation’s fascination with the presidential election was the driving force behind sagging ratings this season seemed prescient when Sunday’s monstrous numbers came out for Steelers-Cowboys (17.8 rating) and Seahawks-Patriots (14.9 rating).

“The whole election thing was a big factor. People were more engaged and in the political discussion for that race, or some might say train wreck that was this race. I think that definitely occupied people’s thought process,” said SiriusXM host and Giants play-by-play man Bob Papa, who also thought Peyton Manning’s retirement, Tom Brady’s suspension and the Cubs’ World Series run played significant factors in the steep decline in NFL ratings.

There have been other theories as well, from people being disenchanted with the league because of Colin Kaepernick’s flag protest to a dip in the quality of play, particularly in prime time.

We will get a better idea of how much the election was responsible this Sunday when the matchups are much tamer. The Sunday 4 p.m. national game is between the Eagles and Seahawks and the Sunday nighter pits the Packers and Redskins. The matchup for the NFL to watch, though, is the Monday night showdown in Mexico between the Raiders and Texans.

Last Monday night’s 21-20 nail-biter between the Giants and Bengals was the only ratings buzzkill for the league with 1.4 million fewer viewers (12.1 to 10.7) tuning in compared to last season’s Week 10 Monday nighter between the Bengals and Texans, according to FOX Sports executive vice president of research Michael Mulvihill, who regularly tweets out ratings info.

It continued Monday night’s nose dive in the ratings, with those numbers down 17 percent compared to last season.

The 7-2 Raiders could be a savior not only this week, but for the rest of the season as the team has a national following and is relevant for the first time in 14 years. They have the potential to be the AFC’s version of the Cowboys.

“As the weather starts to turn, and we are getting into this playoff push toward Thanksgiving and you’re not out as much, there’ll be more fannies in seats sitting in front of the television,” Papa said. “I think they can keep it going with all these different streams that they have, and expanding it globally. They’ll figure out a mechanism to bring those numbers in, but doing a show on SiriusXM every morning, year round I don’t see any interest dwindling in the NFL. We are still bombarded with calls.”

“Those numbers” Papa references are the increased number of people watching the games online, either on an individual network’s stream (NBC) or DirectTV’s Sunday Ticket online or WatchESPN.com or the Thursday night games, some of which have been broadcast directly on Twitter.

Those avenues show the NFL has a desire to grow its game online, but their focus becomes muddled when you look beyond. The league is banning its own teams from providing live highlights to their fans on social media during games and is maniacally protective of the video highlights. This is the opposite approach from the other three major sports leagues, which have embraced the sharing of their highlights online.

The reasoning that the NFL was untouchable has been dented, so will the league now adjust?

“When the Giants went to London, I was shocked at the amount of Giants fans we met from England,” Papa said. “We met people from France, England and Denmark, hard-core Giants fans that follow them through Giants.com or the team stream (from Bleacher Report). It’s an area where there’s a lot of growth and they are still trying to figure out how to wrap their arms around it and figure out the metrics to measure everything.”